Here, for your enjoyment and to force myself to write down these ideas for a change instead of winging it, is my first stab at a junglebox. This is the first of a series; also includes random encounters and a ruined, contested jungle metropolis. For reference, my group is currently using Pathfinder - critters should be portable enough to other D&D clones.
This, but better and in different terrains? Sure!
Wavecrawl kit and Sandy box kit - Playing D&D with PornstarsForestcrawl kit - Wrath of Zombie
A slowly evolving Fungus/oozecrawl - Goblin Punch, Coins & Scrolls: The Great Rot, Monsters thereof, Myconids and their ecosystem
Why you are in this jungle
- Stranded after transport accident
- Chasing known miscreant
- Retrieving lore from hermit
- Hunting for legendary creature
- Searching for rare herbal cure to deadly plague
- Returning cursed artifact to finding site
- In race to faraway landmark
- Challenged to discover legendary lost site
- Questing for semiportable macguffin
- Trying to get away from your cesspool of a home town
- Looking for source of potent drug
- Seeking forbidden magic
What keeps things interesting
- No supplies, need to live off the land
- Lost guide or maps
- Natives don't speak Common
- Saboteur in the party
- Unwittingly carrying artifact of doom (50% chance of pursuing zealots)
- Many factions to negotiate with
- Haunted by ghosts of tombs you desecrated (50% chance of pursuing zealots)
- Yellow bellied party members afraid of every last insect, fungus and snake
- Dead weight - expedition member is useless, needs to survive the trip
- Natives friendly, way too much into cannibalism
- Limited carrying capacity for food, gear & loot
- Wasting curse or disease whittling down party
Why you can't just turn around and call it a day
- Drunken oath during farewell party to succeed or die trying
- Burning hatred for rival adventuring party
- Mistook retirement fund for drinking money
- Promise to your one true love
- Contract with guild master
- Quite reasonable request from local Gnomish
mafiaentrepeneurs - Crippling gambling debt
- Archwizard with 'for the pursuit of knowledge' speech and Geas spell
- High priest with 'chosen by the gods' speech and Quest spell
- Wasting disease and inflated prices at temple of healing
- Entire nation's fate hangs in the balance
- Wandering curse - cannot sleep in the same place for more than 1d3 nights
This place
- Roll d8 to determine the dominant wildlife.
- Roll d10 to find out if there are people about, from which culture, and what is bugging them.
- Roll 1d100 for places: ruins, eldritch locations or other landmarks.
Dominant wildlife (d8)
1. Fungus and ooze (d12)2. Plants (d12)
3. Vermin (d12)
4. Animals (d20)
5. Lively plant life, small wildlife
6. Dead-silent foliage, no wildlife
7. Alliance: 2d4
8. Conflict: 2d4
d20 | animals | d20 | animals |
1 | Anaconda | 11 | Megasloth |
2 | Brontosaurus | 12 | Megasnake |
3 | Bulette | 13 | Megatortoise |
4 | Crocodile | 14 | Monkey Swarm |
5 | Devilfish | 15 | Poisonous frogs |
6 | Girallon | 16 | Quetzalcoatlus |
7 | Great cat | 17 | T.Rex |
8 | Hippo | 18 | Terror bird |
9 | Iguanodon | 19 | Venemous snakes |
10 | Megacrocodile | 20 | Wyvern |
People (d10)
1. 1d3 Hermits (wise folk, witches, oracles, outcasts)2. 2d6 Travelers (traders, hunters, slavers)
3. 2d4 x 10 Camp (nomadic)
4. 3d8 x 10 Settlement (permanent)
5. Empty
6. Empty
7. Empty
8. Empty
9. Alliance: 2d4
10. Conflict: 2d4
Culture (d30)
1 | Firebinder Drow |
2 | Shadowbinder Drow |
3 | Girallon slavers |
4 | Slaad |
5-6 | Ashen Lotus cult; reroll for cover |
7-8 | Giant Ants |
9-10 | Serpent Folk |
11 | Fire Giants |
12 | Storm Giants |
13-14 | Jungle Giants |
15-16 | Hill Giants |
17 | Ettins |
18 | Cyclops |
19-21 | Vulkoor Drow: loreseeker |
22-24 | Volkoor Drow: wrathful |
25-30 | Volkoor Drow: hunter |
- Rival tribe conducting raids in territory
- Wandering monsters poaching hunting grounds
- Shaman is having prophetic seizures of "despoilers"
- Bad hunting season. Usual rites and taboos do nothing.
- Horrible weather - heat, cold, drought, rain
- Burial grounds looted
- Youths on rite of adulthood disappeared
- Plague
- Tools keep breaking and disappearing
- The god in the pit grows hungry for a fresh bride
- Holy madmen whipping up suicide cult
- Drug addiction, stash ran out, trader is late
d100 Places
1 | Abandoned town | 51 | Wide river |
2 | Razed temple | 52 | Lake |
3 | Sacrificial altar | 53 | Standing pools |
4 | Burial ground | 54 | Rapids |
5 | Giant stone head | 55 | Waterfall |
6 | Trading post - water, land, air | 56 | Muddy expanse |
7 | Crashed skydwelling | 57 | Quicksand |
8 | Bridge | 58 | Tar pits |
9 | Ancient aquaduct | 59 | Dinosaur boneyard |
10 | Vinerope bridges in the trees | 60 | Gigantic tree |
11 | Arena | 61 | Stone outcropping |
12 | Cliff caves, winch entry | 62 | Steep cliffs |
13 | Dream vault | 63 | Barren expanse between trees |
14 | Aberration lair | 64 | Cave-riddled hills |
15 | Mine: metal, gems | 65 | Oddly cool and quiet grove |
16 | Underwater tower | 66 | Smoke or gas from vent |
17 | Ziggurat observ/laboratory | 67 | Broken ground, slow going |
18 | Farming community | 68 | Pit of green slime |
19 | Derelict warmachine | 69 | Swamp with will-o-wisps |
20 | Trapped armory | 70 | Branching canyon |
21 | Temple full of eggs | 71 | Filled with rare blue flowers |
22 | Well with horror and treasure | 72 | Concentric rings of rock |
23 | Decayed watchtower | 73 | Gems that crumble in sunlight |
24 | Line of watchtowers | 74 | Forest-wrecked structure |
25 | Buried quorforged army | 75 | Impact crater |
26 | Crashed skycraft | 76 | Towering fungal growth |
27 | Walking fortress | 77 | Rage-filled glade |
28 | Inverse tower | 78 | Dried lake |
29 | Labyrinth, (dwelling in walls) | 79 | Broken dam, staggered rapids |
30 | Outsider foothold | 80 | Towering highlands |
31 | Magic tree* | 81 | Warblasted flora, fauna, terrain |
32 | Dead magic | 82 | Hot springs |
33 | Reverse river | 83 | Boiling hot geyser |
34 | Floating rock | 84 | Stone islands in caldera-lake |
35 | Haunted slave pens | 85 | Gigantic quartz shard |
36 | Syberis dragonshards | 86 | Glowing gems in the rock |
37 | Canyons are Draconic runes | 87 | Permanent thunder storm |
38 | Sunken town, breathable water | 88 | Lava flow or pit |
39 | Glow orbs mimic constellations | 89 | Still, clear, bottomless lake |
40 | Tilting floating building | 90 | Very pleasant glade |
41 | River of tumbling rocks | 91 | Dinosaur trapped in amber |
42 | Obsidian coral growths | 92 | Titanskull hermit crab |
43 | Field of Slaver Sunflowers | 93 | Fruit trees and game |
44 | Imp caught in amber, watching | 94 | Tidal caverns |
45 | Hut of giant skulls (spellbooks) | 95 | Mating ground |
46 | Giant shadows burned into rock | 96 | Disorienting spores |
47 | Permanent fire pillar | 97 | Poisonous and flammable gas |
48 | Cloud sigils teach magic | 98 | Giant wasp hive |
49 | Magic waterfall** | 99 | Hill carved into giant face |
50 | Magic river*** | 100 | Lotus field |
1d20 magic trees
http://gloomtrain.blogspot.nl/2013/07/horticulture-of-unknown.html
1d6 magic rivers
http://gloomtrain.blogspot.nl/2013/07/horticulture-of-unknown.html
1d6 magic rivers
- Untamed. Cannot be crossed by boat or bridge, a bitch to swim across, birds avoid flying over it. Any attempts gets you visits by gremlins, then elementals, then the god of the river himself comes to wreck your shit. Defeat him to cross and to travel faster in the future, but endure his constant challenges.
- Forgetfulness. Every encounter check on the river, also roll a Will save or lose a year of memories, starting when you became an adult (first adventure, rite of passage) and moving one year closer to the present every roll.
- Adventure. Reroll any encounter check that doesn't result in a direct encounter.
- Time. A day of travel will last (d6) 1 10 minutes, 2 an hour, 3 ±1d3 days, 4 ± 1d3 weeks, 5 ± 1d10 months, 6 ± 1d100 years (travel back in time for negative results).
- Unchartable. Strange plants, animals and landmarks appear on the banks; end up (d4) 1 unexplicably closer to your goal, 2 several days back along your journey, 3 in the spirit world, 4 at a harbor between the worlds.
- Fate. Pronounce your own doom; the DM gets to add half as many words to the prophecy - you know these words. Gain a bonus to saves and checks equal to your level + charisma bonus when failing them would prevent you from meeting your doom. Your doom lies 1d10 years into the future; every time you use the river bonus, it moves one year closer. When you hit 0 years, your doom will come within d4 sessions.
1d6 magic waterfalls
- Dilution. Objects thrown into the waterfall have their power washed away. Good place to wreck a cursed item. Just don't go in with spells memorized - unless you don't mind losing them forever.
- Soul sink. The waterfall destroys away the soul of anything falling into it. A way to end a recurring undead (which is nothing but a stubborn soul puppeteering dumb matter) or an angel/demon. Also a great way to make anyone surviving the trip into a soulless sociopath.
- Chrysalis. Falling down the falls frees you to make the next evolutionary step. Roll 1d3 to determine number of mutations gained - for each mutation, roll Fortitude difficulty 15 + (total mutations) to determine whether it comes from the the minor or major mutation chart.
- Nihilism. Will save, difficulty 20 nightly to gain any sleep: 2 consecutive failures turns you into an Awakened, 2 consecutive successes cures you.
- Elemental baptism. Throwing a precious sacrifice into the waters blesses you with a powerful ward against magic.
- Binding. The waters imprison anything as long as they keep running. Damming the river will stir up seriously pissed-off critters dumped into the falls in ages past.
Roll for weather twice per day. After you roll extreme weather (3-6 or 15-18), reroll with 1d8+6 (7-14) to find the weather after the freak event. The next half-day also rolls 1d8+6.
3.
Radiation blast: Range 10/20/30ft, Fort 13/17/22
or initial 1/1d4/2d4 Con drain & 1/1d4/1d6 Str dmg/day (2 saves ends Str
damage; spillover Str damage goes to Con). Buried source nearby.
4.
Earthquake: 1-25% 10x1d4+1 ft fissure; Ref 20 or
fall; 26-40% Ref 15 or prone; Acrobat 10 to move, Dex-skills -8; Concentration
20+spell level to cast)
5.
Hypnotic Mist (Will 18, Confusion, 10 rounds: 1
Wander off, 2 do nothing, 3 attack self, 4 attack other)
6.
Forest fire (1d6 per round, 2d4x10 rounds; Fort
15+1/round (max 20) or 1d6 nonlethal)
7.
Clear, warm, breeze
8.
Warm, cloudy
9.
Heavy fog, 20% concealment out to 10 ft; 50 %
concealment 10-20 ft.
10. Humid,
hot, still; Fort 10+1/hour of moderate excercise or fatigued (8 hours to
recover)
11. Heavy
rainstorm
12. High
winds, half movement, -5 to climbing/flying checks
13. Freak cold snap after rain storm
14. Lightning
storm (5% 10d6 lightning; 6-15% 5d6 shrapnel, Ref 20 half; 16-30% Fort 12 or
deaf, 1 min)
15. Incorporeal
wind (ignores everything but flesh; Fort 15 or 1d6 nonlethal & fatigue: -2
Dex & Str, no running)
16. Flash
flood (Survival 20: 1d4 rds warning; Bull rush +20 or swept away, 2d6 dmg/rd,
Ref 12 half, 3d6 rds; Swim 20 to move towards dry land (1d3 checks))
17. Reverse
rain, dehydration (1 dmg/round of exposure, 3d6 x 10 rounds)
18. Syberis
shardfall (4d6 piercing & 4d6 fire, Ref 15 half; 1d4 rounds; yields 3d4
shards, value 20-50-200-1000 gp, weight 1/2-1-1-2 item slots)
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